Lou Donaldson (born November 1, 1926) is a jazz alto
saxophonist. He is best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the
alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was, as many were of the
bebop era, heavily influenced by Charlie Parker.
Donaldson was born in Badin, North Carolina. He attended
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro in the
early 1940s. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was trained
at the Great Lakes bases in Chicago, where he was introduced to bop music in
the lively club scene there. At the war's conclusion, he returned to
Greensboro, where he worked club dates with the Rhythm Vets, a combo composed
of A and T students who had served in the U.S. Navy.
The band recorded the soundtrack to a musical comedy
featurette, Pitch a Boogie Woogie, in Greenville, North Carolina, in the summer
of 1947. The movie had a limited run at black audience theatres in 1948 but its
production company, Lord-Warner Pictures, folded and never made another film.
Pitch a Boogie Woogie was restored by the American Film Institute in 1985 and
re-premiered on the campus of East Carolina University in Greenville the
following year.
Donaldson and the surviving members of the Vets performed
a reunion concert after the film's showing. In the documentary made on Pitch by
UNC-TV, Boogie in Black and White, Donaldson and his musical cohorts recall the
film's making—he originally believed that he had played clarinet on the
soundtrack. A short piece of concert footage from a gig in Fayetteville, North
Carolina, is included in the documentary.
Donaldson's first jazz recordings were with the Charlie
Singleton Orchestra in 1950 and then with bop emissaries Milt Jackson and
Thelonious Monk in 1952, and he participated in several small groups with other
jazz luminaries such as trumpeter Blue Mitchell, pianist Horace Silver, and drummer
Art Blakey.
In 1953, he also recorded sessions with the trumpet
virtuoso Clifford Brown, and Philly Joe Jones. He was a member of Art Blakey's
Quintet and appeared on some of their best regarded albums, including the two
albums recorded at Birdland in February 1954 Night at Birdland.
Donaldson has recorded in the bop, hard bop, and soul
jazz genres. For many years his pianist was Herman Foster. He was inducted into
the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame on October 11, 2012. Also in 2012, he was
named a NEA Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts, United States'
highest honour in jazz music. (Info Wikipedia)
1 comment:
For Lou Donaldson - Alligator Bogaloo (1967) go here:
http://www38.zippyshare.com/v/ecmQ2MPG/file.html
Alligator Bogaloo is one example of Lou Donaldson's successful combinations of hard bop and soul-jazz. Of the six tunes, three are Donaldson originals, including the title hit. The excellent band, consisting of Melvin Lastin, Sr. on cornet, George Benson on guitar, Lonnie Smith on organ, and Leo Morris on drums, mixes laid-back vamps beneath driving hard bop charts. As the '60s turned into the '70s, Donaldson began shaving off hard bop invention for a more radio-friendly and 45 rpm length, leaving soulful -- yet monotonous -- vamping. At that point, Donaldson's material suffered from a lack of originality. That's not the case on Alligator Bogaloo.
Personnel:
Lou Donaldson - alto sax
Melvin Lastie - cornet
Lonnie Smith - organ
George Benson - guitar
Leo Morris (Idris Muhammad) - drums
tracklist:
01 - Alligator Bogaloo
02 - One Cylinder
03 - The Thang
04 - Aw Shucks!
05 - Rev. Moses
06 - I Want A Little Girl
A big thank you to the ruskavel jazz blog for original link
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